Dr. Charles Bakis (Pennsylvania State University)

"3D Printed Whisker Reinforced Composites" (30 minutes)

Three-dimensional (3D) printing using fused filament fabrication is an emerging method of manufacturing thermoplastic objects directly from digital models. This presentation reviews methods of manufacturing aligned whisker reinforced polymer composites using 3D printing and methods of simulating the mechanical behavior of these materials using micromechanics. Comparisons between simulations and experiments based on recent research conducted at the Pennsylvania State University are provided. Based on this research and an overall assessment of the state-of-the-art, areas of improvement in 3D printing of whisker reinforced composites are proposed.